Bluejay Way

When Nebraska’s Creighton University sought to modernize its CenturyLink Center men’s basketball locker rooms, it looked to its long-time print provider Renze Display in Omaha to provide a graphic transformation.

“Creighton University has been a great client of ours for decades,” says Mike Compton, executive vice president for Renze. “We had already branded the interior of the locker room with wallpaper murals, display cases, dimensional logos, etc., and now they wanted the hallway outside of the locker room to match the look.”

Branding agency Daake Design (daake.com) designed the wall mural. “We wanted something that appealed not only to current student-athletes, but also recruits, and maintain a 'new-age' look,” explains Rob Anderson, Creighton University sports information director. Photos were sourced from Creighton’s in-house digital library, enlarged to increase resolution, and changed from full-color images to duotone in Adobe Photoshop to match the look of the images used throughout the facility.

The mural was output using the shop’s Seiko ColorPainter H2-74 with an Onyx RIP. Two films were utilized to accommodate the specific surfaces. For the textured surfaces like the concrete block walls, 3M Scotchcal IJ8624 was chosen; to adhere to the metal corners and drywall areas above the doors, the shop used 3M Controltac IJ180-CV3. The challenge was getting the colors to match on the two different films, says Compton.

In addition to the color-matching issues and the install challenges of applying to painted concrete block, budgetary concerns also caused problems. The original plan was to incorporate three-dimensional structures into the mural. “The entire mural was originally designed to have perforated metal, dimensional lettering, brushed aluminum panels, and a multi-layered dimensional Jays logo,” says Compton. “However, while these features might be added at a later date, the client didn’t have the budget at the time, so we used Photoshop to make all of the elements appear metallic and dimensional, but actually be part of the flat printed mural.”

For the textured film, 3M 8524 laminate was applied; 3M 8520 was utilized for the standard film. Both were applied using a Seal Image 600 laminator. The final mural measured 104 x 10 feet.

Four installers worked four days to complete the project. “We applied the textured media in four-foot-wide vertical strips, just like wallpaper. The time-consuming part was that the film had to be heated to more than 1000 degrees using a special heat gun so that the film would contour to the high and low spots of the walls. And, because the concrete blocks were painted, it was harder for the air to release from the film than if it had been unfinished concrete. This added about a full day to the install time,” says Compton.